Causes and Management of Criminals: Psychiatric Aspects

Abstract

It is axiomatic that when man encounters a problem he cannot solve, he will repeatedly struggle with it. He will work at it, put it aside, then come at it again from another direction, and try, try again. So it is with the eternal struggle to understand and deal with criminals. Volumes have been written on the subject, some much better than others.* Throughout all the discussions, certain critical themes persist, and this chapter attempts to review some of those themes from a psychiatric perspective.

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The first man born on earth killed his brother and became a criminal. His punishment, he said, was greater than he could bear. But he was not executed and his descendants became great musicians, artisans, and herdsmen. How would it have turned out if Cain had killed Abel in West Virginia last month?

The criminal tendencies of mankind have been one of our compelling interests since that day in the Euphrates Valley so many centuries ago. We still don’t know how to protect Abel and we still don’t know what to do with Cain; whatever we do seems to be wrong. Crimes increase, but most of those who commit them are never caught. Those who are caught seem to get caught over and over again and are given the same unprofitable treatment.

—Karl Menninger, M.D., in his Foreword to Psychiatry and the Dilemmas of Crime, 1967, by Seymour L. Halleck (New York, Harper & Row).

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